"Every story has its own music; all of them –all of mine, at least– have their own sky, and so this story begins with a moon melody. The sounds of space are the sounds of the soul. Everyone who has been close to the moon and the stars leave a piece of their souls making sounds out there. And here, within this box, are all my memories, my soul, Selene, moon of mine. Love, Seagull."
Moon Diaries
By Flavia Gresores
The play introduces us to Selene, a young girl who has found old documents, papers and memories that belonged to her grandmother, who was an astronaut.
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ph: Romina Cariola.
Through her reconstruction of her grandmother's adventures, we will have the opportunity of thinking about how the imagination allows us to transform the world and ourselves.
ph: Romina Cariola.
About the plot:
Moon Diaries is a mockumentary about the first women astronauts who orbited around the moon. I mixed some stories and created a new character from real data taken from different experiences. Moon Diaries is a simulation of the first astronauts who orbited around the moon.
I came across the story of these women almost by chance. I was looking for bedtime stories for my son who, as most children, is fascinated with the moon, the sky and everything that he can perceive, but not comprehend. The first podcast that the Spotify-algorithm suggested to me was the story of a woman who orbited three days in space in 1963. Her words were: "I am seeing the horizon as a blue line... It is the Earth, and it's beautiful! Hello, Universe!"
These women travelling to the Moon set their eyes on the beauty of Earth; while us, from Earth, set our eyes on the Moon and the skies. The paradox is endearing, and it is here that the image took control and moved me to work with "earthly things" to re-create a trip to the Moon. I imagine thousands of people lifting their heads, pointing their curious gazes, like spotlights, towards the place where something "magical, unexplicable" is happening. Their eyes project light to illuminate the mysteries hidden in the dark. In Moon Diaries, projections will travel from the ground to the ceiling, through the whole of the scenic space, and children will be invited to follow that movement with their senses. They will be involved in the take-off and moon-landing because the seats will be integrated into the scenery, depicting a spaceship. Through the window of the spaceship, we will see space, and with the help of mixed media we will witness the story of Selma (the name I chose for this astronaut) through the eyes of her granddaughter. Selena goes back to her grandmother's house and goes through her memories: photos, pictures, travel log.
I started to make notes of how my three-year-old son, and older kids, talk about the Moon, space rockets, astronauts, the sky and the clouds, outer space, as well as their comments, and their trains of thought about these mysteries. I am deeply interested in children's peculiar grammar, and this research suggested me a way of narrating this, a universe of objects from our everyday life that, viewed through their eyes, allow me to imagine and recreate possible worlds.
Drew by Isabela Rivero Giriboni
For that, I will use left-over objects, lights and shadows produced through different techniques –many of them also left-over or outdated: retroprojectors, low-tech, children's toys with lights and sounds, party novelties, etc. I also use tactical lanterns, simple devices that I've been working with in the past years. For this occasion, I also included a digital mini-projector for domestic use, which allowed me to mix techniques and observe their combination.
That's how it all works
Design and realization of openwork templates
The research stage was conceived and developed in the framework of a three-week residency in the House of Possibilitas. In the months prior to the residency, I worked in the gathering of consumer and left-over objects: bottles, caps, different containers, paper, cloth, clasps, kitchen utensils, parts of broken toys, toys with lights and sounds; as well as objects found in nature: grass, water, stones. Also, chemical products, such as detergent, hair gel, oil, food coloring. I also researched their different combinations.
The experience was extremely satisfactory, and it also helped me develop new technical/poetic resources.
This residency allowed me to:
– Have at my disposal a physical space and sufficient time to design, develop and build the number of models for several of the spaces of the play. I was able to try out different combinations, to modify and intervene the objects and elements gathered together.
– To create characters in templates, and pair them with light filters to create landscapes.
– To write down ideas and possible scenes based on the requirements and needs of the scenic devices.
– To further develop a personal language, fusing the literary and visual aspects of the play.
– To have a register, both in picture and video, to analyse the different aspects of the creative process and later evaluate their success.
– To experience myself the sound and visual landscape of the play.
This is the space: enter, accommodate, start experimenting.
First week
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Retroprojection using water, oil and inks
Making objects to assemble the scenic models.
Making Cosmonauts.
Second week
The choice of shadow-play as the main area of research is due to its plasticity; it allows a variety of forms, from the basic (geometric) to more complex ones: toys or kitchen utensils which, combined with their shadows, evoke multiple universes. In fact, the phases of the Moon are nothing more than changes in the sections of the satellite visible to us, due to its change of location with respect to the Earth and the Sun. That is, in other words, a play of light and shadows.
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This story is an opportunity for both children and adults to realise the many ways in which everyday objects can be transformed into landscapes, musical instruments, projectors, and all sorts of devices that give us the impression that we are going to the moon. Our imagination allows us to transform the world and ourselves. Childhood can be a poetic adventure.
Openwork figures and creation of Leandro Sartoretti
Third week
My aims are:
– To encourage the participation of children as an active audience for fiction;
– To generate a safe environment for playing and exploring, contained within the play; this show reveals its own techniques: everything is in plain sight, contained (and justified) by the story; we can all share and enjoy the magical, auratic experience of theatre;
– To produce a play as an immersive experience; to use as starting point everything that children can perceive and identify according to their experience and context. I want them to see how the play is made, and what materials it is made from. This is the main reason why the manipulation of objects and projections will be made in front of them. And even those projections that are made from the back will later be moved to the front, so that they can witness what the mechanism was in the first place. As I view it, one of the problems with traditional shadow theatre is that, since the mechanisms behind it are not visible, a new audience of digital natives may take for granted that what is being seen is a digital projection:
– To produce a self-sustainable show: everything onstage is built with left-over objects and recycled materials. Changing the traditional use of certain objects opens new meanings. At the same time, this technique will help to raise awareness about the current environmental crisis, by bringing up subjects such as planned obsolescence and the over-consumption of unnecessary products.
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"Seagull here!. I am seeing the horizon as a blue line... It is the Earth, and it's beautiful! Hello, Universe!"
My belly is full of sapling! Everthing is light, everything is sound.
Consciousness expands. And I was myself, but I felt multiplied, reflected in the universe. I am everything that floats.
I will use left-over objects, lights and shadows produced through different techniques –many of them also left-over or outdated: retroprojectors, low-tech, children's toys with lights and sounds, party novelties, etc. I also use tactical lanterns, simple devices that I've been working with in the past years. For this occasion, I also included a digital mini projector for domestic use, connected to a closed-circuit camera, which permits the mixing of techniques and working with their combinations.
The models for the different scenes of the play will be displayed on a table.
The model for the lunar surface will be displayed on the floor.
Scenic silver
Everything will be projected on a screen three feet away from the wall, in order to back-project on it, and also serve as curtain.
On a separate table, all the devices described above will be contained under a transparent arch (in the images of the rehearsals, you can see a beach-tent) to simulate the front window of a spaceship. This will make all technical devices in the play visible, but at the same time contained within the stage design.
Audience
Audience
Moon DiarieSound effects will be produced live, using the mixer. The soundtrack to the play will be generated live. Thus, an amplified metal spring will suggest space travel. Other amplified objects can be: music boxes, plastic spoons, old rotary phones, using piezoelectric or contact microphones for amplifying vibrations from any object. I will also use the melodies, projections and movements from various engines and from all the vast amount of kitsch oriental objects. "Moon Diaries" will be a "mockumentary", in which analogic and digital everyday objects are used with some film references but the live feeling of theatre.
